Growing up we celebrated Easter by getting new dresses for church and an Easter basket full of dyed hard-boiled eggs, malt balls, and Raisinets. After church our Grandmother would take my sister, cousin and myself downtown to see the play “Simon Peter.” Those were sweet childhood memories for us. It was fun and it was our tradition as youngsters. Once we became ornery, rebelling teenagers, going to see a play wasn’t considered “fun” anymore. So the tradition ended at about age 15-16.

Now that all of us “youngsters” have families of our own I wanted to create a new family tradition – an Easter egg hunt.

The idea was inspired by my best friend Joy’s family. She has 7 siblings, including herself and every Easter her parents throw a BIG Easter egg hunt. The eggs are filled with money to make it exciting for everyone to join in. They have one gold egg stuffed with a big prize. That puppy typically has a twenty dollar bill, sometimes a fifty hidden inside. The golden egg is always what really fuels the hunt. Everyone wants to get their paws on it.

Since my family typically has different things going on Easter day, I thought it’d be nice to host an Easter Egg Hunt Brunch Party the Sunday before. It’s a good excuse to get the family together for some fun. Most of the eggs had candy in it and some had change like quarters, dimes and nickels. Then I found a large gold egg and put a dollar bill in it for the “big prize.” Each year I may make it a bigger prize ($$), but our kids are young enough now that it makes for a good starting point.

For the adults we had brunch, pot-luck style, with endless glasses of mimosas and a build-your-own-crepe station. The kids had a blast. Our family and friends had a blast. I think this has officially become a new family tradition. :)

Our build-your-own-crepe station had a good selection of toppings that consisted of cinnamon & sugar, Nutella, lemon curd, cookie butter, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, whipped cream and ham & swiss for a savory crepe. It was delish, to say the least. To wash it all down endless glasses of mimosas were served….and guzzled.

My little one found it more fun to collect rocks and twigs than actual Easter eggs. *sigh*

I found this egg in our apple tree the morning after. I wonder how many other loose eggs are around the yard?

Make sure you count the eggs in your basket (hehe) before you hide them. Not knowing how many eggs you hid and how many were found can lead to finding eggs randomly throughout the year.

Nikki – Cookie butter is the best thing and the worst thing that’s happened to me. I can eat it by the spoonful. Not sure if you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, but it’s next to the peanut butter and jam jars. It’s basically spice cookies pulverized into a flour, then blended with butter to make, cookie butter (I’m totally guessing on that one).

Ahh, what fun! Wish I could’ve been there to see the kids having fun. Love Ollie’s
basket with all the rocks. Typical little boy. (Or maybe not, last year Ava collected sticks while the others collected eggs.)

Good job on the crepes – they look yummy! (I’ve never attempted them.) And you already answered my question about the cookie butter, which I’ve seen at TJ’s and now I might have to try it!
He was into rocks when we were there, so no surprise in the basket! :)